Unmanned Farm for Regenerated Rice!

On August 15th, the demonstration base of the unmanned regenerated rice farm in Qianshanhong Town, Datonghu District, Yiyang, Hunan Province conducted actual cutting and yield testing. The yield testing expert group measured that the highest yield of regenerated rice per mu in the first season was 830.7 kilograms, with an average yield of 788.2 kilograms per mu. This is the first test production of the world’s first unmanned regenerated rice farm after its first planting this year.

In 2022, the key special project of the “14th Five Year Plan” National Key R&D Plan, “Enhancing the Production Capacity of Regenerated Rice in the Yangtze River Basin and Developing and Integrating High Quality and Efficient Technologies,” was launched. This special project is led by Huazhong Agricultural University and participated by 10 units from 5 provinces and cities, including Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Grain Crop Research Institute of Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The aim is to enhance the production capacity of regenerated rice in the Yangtze River Basin and promote the industrialization of regenerated rice.

Hunan Hongshuo Biotechnology Co., Ltd., together with Luo Xiwen, an academician of the CAE Member and a professor of South China Agricultural University, Peng Shaobing, a professor of Huazhong Agricultural University, and Tang Qiyuan, a professor of Hunan Agricultural University, jointly created the first global no man farm of ratooning rice in the Datong Lake area of Yiyang.

This unmanned farm has created a localized intelligent agricultural brain and digital agriculture demonstration model through the “agricultural machinery+agronomy+intelligence” platform, utilizing the Zhonglian Smart Agriculture platform. It has achieved full process data collection and analysis of rice production, intelligent decision-making of agricultural instructions, intelligent execution of agricultural machinery operations, and full process traceability of rice cultivation, planting, management, harvest, production, supply, and sales. In 2023, the scientific research team focused on tackling key technologies such as reducing first season harvest milling, mechanized weeding, and drone variable rate fertilization.

Luo Xiwen said that ratoon rice is the rice ears that grow on the stubble left in the previous season. In the first season, if the stubble is cut neatly and rolled less, it will grow well in the next season. “In the farming link, we use driverless rotary tillers, so the land can be leveled very smoothly; in the planting link, we use driverless water seeders, dry seeders and transplanters, so the row spacing, hole spacing, and seeding amount are very uniform; in the field management, driverless spray are used for fertilization and pesticide application, so the fog amount is very uniform, and the spraying effect is very good.” Luo Xiwen said, which shows that the technology of the unmanned farm is particularly suitable for the production of ratooning rice.

The harvesting process adopts unmanned driving and narrow track technology, reducing rolling and is expected to achieve a yield of 400 kilograms per mu during the regeneration season. Today’s production measurement results give us more confidence in the construction of unmanned farms, and the team will strive to achieve a yield of 1200 kilograms per mu in two seasons next year, “Luo Xiwen stated.